Population Size

Score1-2 - Small to Moderate. Population size is imprecisely known but is believed to be >2,000 individuals and <100,000 individuals.

Range Extent

Score0 - Widespread species within Montana (occurs in 5% or more of the state or generally occurring in 6 or more sub-basins.) as well as outside of Montana.

Area of Occupancy

Score0 - High: Occurs in >25 Subwatersheds (6th Code HUC’s).

Environmental Specificity

Score0-1 - Low to Moderate.

Trends

Score0-1 - Stable to Minor Declines:

CommentActual trends are unknown, though the likelihood of severe declines appears to be minor.

Threats

Score0-1 - Low to Medium.

Intrinsic Vulnerability

Score1-2 - Moderate to High Vulnerability.

Raw Conservation Status Score

Score2 to 7 total points scored out of a possible 19.

General Description

Moonwort is a very small, perennial fern with a single aboveground frond. The dark-green frond is usually about 4 inches long and can be seen through mid-summer. It is divided into two leaves above a common stalk. The sterile leaf is usually dark green, thick, and fleshy. It has up to 9 usually overlapping pairs of broadly fan-shaped leaflets (pinnae). The top edges are rounded and smooth or wavy or rarely have teeth. The fertile leaf is longer than the sterile leaf with branches that bear grape-like sporangia. Spores germinate underground and develop into tiny, non-photosynthetic gametophytes which depend on an fungus for nourishment. Our plants are variety crenulatum (Donald Farrar; Iowa State Univeristy, unpublished).

Phenology

Leaves appearing in midspring, dying in latter half of summer.

Diagnostic Characteristics

The name Botrychium neolunaria sp. nov. ined. will likely replace the name B. lunaria within North America as unpublished research has shown that material from N.A. is "greatly different genetically" from Eurasian material (Farrar 2011).

Species Range

Present

Range Comments

In MT in the western third of state east to Park County; subspecies crenulatum occurs from BC and AB south to CA, NV, UT, and east to WY with disjunct occurrences in northern MN and the souther end of Hudson Bay in ON and QC (Donald Farrar, Iowa State University, unpublished).

(Observations spanning multiple months or years are excluded from time charts)

Habitat

Various mesic sites from low to moderate elevations, including roadsides and other disturbed habitats. Sites are generally open with montane meadows and grasslands being the most common habitats occupied by the species.